This weekend is the NEW YORK CITY MARATHON! I am so excited!!! Kara Goucher will be running this as her comeback marathon (everyone needs to watch and cheer her on)!

So in order to get everyone up to (marathon) speed- this blog post is dedicated to everythinggg NEW YORK!

Last year there were 50,266 finishers of the marathon. That's ginormous. I can't even imagine running something that big- LA Marathon when I ran it (2012) was 25k and Rome (2014) was 20k. NYC blows those out of the water.

Kara Goucher -This is her comeback race. She has really had a tough year and a half- and the last marathon she raced was the 2013 Boston- horrible day. She has been battling injuries and finally came through them to start training in time to make this her comeback race to RIO. NYC was actually her debut marathon where she did a 2:25:53 (fastest debut marathon by an American woman at the time) in 2008. So I think getting back to her roots is a huge part of why she decided to go back and run NYC. She definitely is America's sweetheart (literally sweetest person around) and is working her way towards RIO!

Meb Klefezghi: He has alreadyyyy had an incredible year (first American to win Boston in YEARS) and is going back to run hard in NYC. Last year's NYC Marathon was not his race- but he still made the best of a bad situation by making another runner's day/life. He was the 2009 Champion- and he has run the race a crazy NINE times! Rooting for one of the most loveable athletes in the game.

Deena Kastor- She holds the American record in the half and the full marathon- and just set a world masters record in the half marathon in Philly this fall. She is going after the American masters record in the marathon (2:28:40) at NYC. Blown away by how crazy hard she has been going after it all lately.

Desiree Linden- She is actually an Eastlake (San Diego) native. And her debut marathon was majorly fast - 2:22:38 (fastest American debut at the time). She dropped during the London Olympics due to injury but ran a great Boston this year (came in 10th) and is wanting to do some big things on the course.

Lauren Kleppin- New to the runworld- she is young- and FAST. Her debut race was a 2:42:17 and this year ran a 2:28:48 at the LA Marathon. She will definitely be someone to watch in the next few years.

I'm SUPER excited to watch the race this Sunday- for everyone that is interested in watching- it will start at 6 am (PST) and you can watch it on ESPN 2. I have already dvr-ed it in case I accidentally snooze for 5 minutes. God forbid I miss even ONE minute of a marathon. I loved doing a long run while watching the Boston marathon this year - and the London Olympics- and I'm planning on doing my long run while watching this. It makes me feel really fast to watch the athletes while I'm running- while going at half their speed. NO BIG DEAL.

synchronized swimming? PLEASE. i prefer synchronized flying.

Some crazy cool things about NYC Marathon:

it runs through all 5 burroughs of NYC

the course record here is 2:05:06 - set by Geoffrey Mutai

you can gain entry through a number of ways - 1. lotto, 2. getting rejected by lotto enough times that they feel bad for you and give you guaranteed entry, 3. charity, 4. doing a certain amount of races with New York Road Runners, 5. time qualifying (MUCH harder to qual for than Boston- for example- my AG in Boston- I need a 3:35- for NYC I need a 3:10. Nuts.)

it started in 1970- and was only supposed to be a one time celebration run

Meb was the first American to win the race since Alberto Salazar (Coach to Mo Farah & Galen Rupp - my favorite run bff's) won in 1982. GO USA!!!

Here is the course profile of the race. UPPPSSS and downnnnsss:

Right after the 2012 debacle with them canceling the race Friday night after SO many of the runners had already flown in (due to Hurricane Sandy devastation), I said I didn't want to run the race because I was pretty disappointed with what I thought was a poor way to handle the situation (they had ALL week to cancel- and everyone thought they should/would but they kept telling people all week to come to town for the race - people did and then once everyone was in town, they canceled.) It's been enough time and I'm over it- and it is my long-term goal to eventually qualify to run it. I loveeee NYC and I miss living on the East Coast and I feel like this would be a really special race to run.

This weekend is a return to NORMALCY after weeks of craziness/racing. I will be doing a tempo on Saturday and then a long (treadmill) run on Sunday. I'm excited to have a more chill weekend and finally get back to basics. Only 4 weeks until my Thanksgiving 5k and 8 weeks until Holiday Half. Let's do this!